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ANDERS BRINGDAL BREAKS MAUI OPEN OCEAN SPEED RECORD – AGAIN

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Maui, HI — With steady winds in the 30-35 knot range Anders Bringdal became the first to break 40 Knots in the 3rd session of the Maui GPS V-Max Challenge.

After setting a new mark of 39.6 kts the previous day Anders was perfectly tuned to take full advantage of the conditions.He used the same setup,5.2 Naish Stealth 08 pre-production sail, 54 cm wide AB+ board and 24 cm asymmetrical AB+ fin. Both board and fin are from Anders own company.

Anders:”I hit 40.00kts even on my 3rd run down the lower reef at around 2.30 pm”. He then came in for a quick break and to log in the time then went back out and upped the speed to 40.2 kts.He and the Naish boys were totally stoked. With low tide at 1.30 p.m. there was barely enough water over the lower reef to sail.

Alex Aguera was 2nd at 38.7 kts upping his own personal best speed by .1 kts but not without some hairy moments , Alex:”I had to jump a small wave at full speed only to crash straight in face of the next one,I found myself standing on the reef with the water not even knee deep.”Thankfully he was unhurt even though the plume of spray from his impact could be seen from Spreck’s beach half a mile upwind.

Robby Naish was back for more speed, setting 3rd fastest speed of 37.7 again on the lower reef. Robby: ” the Amateur wave guys are stoked”, yes ,more than one took the photo – op to bring home their picture with Robby Naish. Mike Warmuth came in from his runs with a huge grin, his 37.2 kts good for 4th also a personal best .5th was challenge organizer Erik Beale at 37.1 kts.”I am really happy for Anders and for the fact that we broke 40 in only our 3rd speed session.

The fastest Amateur wave rider was Patrick Bergeron at an impressive 32.7 hot on the heels of guys with slalom gear. True to his word,he had promised to break 30 kts the previous day. Fastest woman was Spreck,s massage guru, Twila Folden at 23.0 kts,her personal best,truly bitten by the speed bug she was off to dig her old slalom board out from under the house.

All in all the 3rd session was a great success with records broken, many personal bests and nobody hurt. The low tide at 1.30 P.M. was making it extremely risky to run the bottom end of the lower reef right where Anders cranked out his 40.2. We will take a break for 4-5 days to allow the low tide cycle to move through the afternoon and look to be running again towards the end of next week.

OVERVIEW:The Maui GPS V-Max Speed Challenge Series, is a new speed series organized by two time world speed record holder, Erik Beale. This Speed Challenge Series differs from the Navman Speed Series in that this series is ALL about TOP SPEED, your V-Max. This series is also not tied down to any one location, but to a number of locations, depending on the conditions. The Maui GPS V-Max team is going to be scouting for the best speed sailing location on Maui in an effort to break the 40kt barrier set by the previous speed series.

The location of the speed sessions are not pre-planned but are announced with 24-hour notice, and there is a SPEED HOTLINE that you call to find out WHEN and WHERE it is happening (808-283-3588). The spees sessions will last from noon time till 6pm to give people a chance to get off work and make it down to the beach to put in some speed times.

“The goal is to break 40 knots open ocean, so we are looking for the fastest 10 second stretch of water off of Maui. We will be using gps set to 10 sec interval as in the Navman series last year.” says Beale. Sailors who are expected to participate include the fastest from the last two years of the Navman series : Anders Bringdal, Erik Beale, Alex Aguera, Jaques Pauvert and Robby Naish. There are no set heats or anything, people can do as many runs as they want and stay as long or as little as they like.

Maui, HI — The second speed session of the Maui GPS V-Max Speed Challenge Series took place Thursday June 21 off of Sprecklesville beach. The N.E. trade winds built steadily through the day peaking at around 35 knots. This wind direction allowed the speed crew to explore the potential of sprec’s lower reef. Anders Bringdal set off with a mission, posting 39.3kts within a few runs with a 6.4 M sail in around 30 kts of wind. Switching to a 5.4M as the wind picked up, he then hit 39.6 kts on his first run for a new Maui open ocean speed record. Anders, “I switched down a couple of sail sizes to get rid of some drag which worked but it was extreme jumping 1 to 2 ft waves at full speed.”

Indeed there was glassy water to be found over the extremely shallow reef but with small waves crossing randomly in all directions, these were not conditions for the faint of heart. Alex Aguera sailed all day consistantly in the 38 kt range with a best of 38.5 for 2nd place. Alex, “I hit a turtle or the reef and it sheared my fin in half and did so many jumps at full speed it was nuts.” Jaques was 3rd at 38.0 kts but his day was done all too soon. After a massive crash on the lower reef, he put his foot down on a sea urchin getting around 50 spines in his foot, talking after being released from hospital he said, “I’m totally bummed I’ll be out for 2 – 3 weeks”. We all wish him a speedy recovery. 4th was challenge organizer Erik Beale at 37.4 “All of us over 37kts 10 sec average were hitting over 40 kts peak speed, I don’t know how I made it through some of those sections at that speed.”

In the am wave class and first wave board rider in to the 30 kt range was Matthew Kovar at 30.6 kts and First in the am women Stephanie Mischler at 21.9 kts. Patrick Bergeron, a wave sailor from Canada said, “This was my best speed on a Revo 4.4 and Hardcore Wave XS 66 litres. Doesn’t look fast when you hear all the 40+ records, but felt scary fast in the conditions!!” Normally a competitor in the ALoha Classic and writer for Windsport Magazine, a group of sailors from Hookipa heard about the speed sessions going on and wanted to give it a go. “It all felt like that sequence in an old Pryde video from the late ’80’s (Fast Forward!?) where Laird Hamilton speeds through wave peaks until one just comes at him. This makes you want to tune a few things and give it another run …for me, gotta break that 30!….. A 4.2 Hucker would probably have done it, but only have a 3.7 at the moment and it wasn’t quite strong enough …only a matter of time, will try again tomorrow as they said they’d probably be back”.

OVERVIEW:The Maui GPS V-Max Speed Challenge Series, is a new speed series organized by two time world speed record holder, Erik Beale. This Speed Challenge Series differs from the Navman Speed Series in that this series is ALL about TOP SPEED, your V-Max. This series is also not tied down to any one location, but to a number of locations, depending on the conditions. The Maui GPS V-Max team is going to be scouting for the best speed sailing location on Maui in an effort to break the 40kt barrier set by the previous speed series.

The location of the speed sessions are not pre-planned but are announced with 24-hour notice, and there is a SPEED HOTLINE that you call to find out WHEN and WHERE it is happening (808-283-3588). The spees sessions will last from noon time till 6pm to give people a chance to get off work and make it down to the beach to put in some speed times.

“The goal is to break 40 knots open ocean, so we are looking for the fastest 10 second stretch of water off of Maui. We will be using gps set to 10 sec interval as in the Navman series last year.” says Beale. Sailors who are expected to participate include the fastest from the last two years of the Navman series : Anders Bringdal, Erik Beale, Alex Aguera, Jaques Pauvert and

Robby Naish. There are no set heats or anything, people can do as many runs as they want and stay as long or as little as they like.

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